By BOBBY HORN JR.
Last week the North Forest ISD held a pair of community forums to inform district patrons how they would relocate some 1,000 Forest Brook High students to M.B. Smiley while repairs and renovations continue at Forest Brook.
In July vandals broke into the school and released water hoses, damaging the school. Nakisha Myles, NFISD spokesperson, said that district expects repairs to be complete by late October or early November.
In the meantime Smiley will serve as campus for both schools.
During last weeks meetings district officials said that the school year would begin with two high schools working out of the same building.
Each school will maintain its own staff of teachers and administrative personnel. With the exception of classes with low enrollment, classes from Forest Brook and Smiley will not be combined.
Each school will also maintain their own extracurricular activities such as band, athletics and student government. North Forest students involved in extracurricular activities will be bussed back to their own campus after school each day for practices and/or games.
Counselors and other support staff will continue to work with their own students. Despite rumors to the contrary, district officials said that each school would not be assigned a separate wing.
Myles said that they dont expect the additional students to cause an overcrowding, noting that Smiley was capable of handling more than twice the students that are coming from Forest Brook. Last week the district also began moving portable buildings to the Smiley campus on Mesa Road to accommodate the new classes.
Student transportation to Forest Brook will not be affected by the move, the district says. Forest Brook will continue to provide buses to Smiley. Parents needing bus pickup locations can pick up a schedule at the new Administration Building at 6010 Little York Rd.
One question brought out was how would the school feed the additional students. Smiley will continue to be a closed lunch campus. School officials say the cafeteria is large enough to handle all the students.
Recognizing the importance of student safety, the district said it would assign not less than six police officers at Smiley. All students will be required to wear name badges and the police will enforce a zero-tolerance policy.
Registration for both schools began this week and will continue through Aug. 16. On Aug. 15 there will be an orientation for Forest Brook 10th-12th grades at Smiley at 1 p.m. On Aug. 16 there be an orientation for incoming 9th graders from both schools at the Smiley campus at 1 p.m. School starts on Aug. 27.